After the Supreme Court scrapped the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) law to appoint judges, the apex court has received diverse suggestions improving the collegium system for the appointment of judges.
Government has told the SC during a hearing that collegium should not act without recording reasons why a particular individual was appointed a judge. The government also stated that there should be a prescribed criteria in the public domain on appointment of judges.
The government has contended that there must be a minimum eligibility criteria for appointment as a judge in addition to the nominations made by the chief justice of high court.
Applications should also be invited for appointment as HC judges and names of people who are being considered for appointment as judges should be made public.
The government further adds that the collegium must consult the bar before making the appointments.
In a landmark judgement on October 16, the Supreme Court upheld the collegium system of appointment of judges and struck down the constitutional amendment that introduced National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
The unanimous verdict quashing the NJAC Act was delivered by a five-judge Constitution bench comprising justices JS Khehar, J Chelameswar MB Lokur, Kurian Joseph and AK Goel which also rejected the plea of Central government to refer for review to larger bench the 1993 and 1998 verdict of the apex court on the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary.
The bench had also said it was willing to take suggestions for improving the collegium system of appointment of judges and had posted the hearing for November 3.
The judgement had been pronounced on a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of NJAC which brought to an end the two-decade-old collegium system of judges appointing judges in the higher judiciary.
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